Looking for Imaging Software

Discussion in 'backup, imaging & disk mgmt' started by wildermark, Nov 30, 2006.

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  1. wildermark

    wildermark Registered Member

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    Alright, so I'm in the process of looking at some disk imaging software and would like some recommendations and input from you guys. I am particularly interested in personal experiences pertaining to image size and speed/efficiency of imaging and restoring.

    So far, I've looked at Acronis Migrate Easy and Acronis True Image.

    Some questions might be... Will I need space for the image that is equivilent to the partition or will I just need space equivilent to the occupied size in the partition? Will I be required to place the image on another physical drive on the chain or could I use an external hard drive to place the image on?

    :doubt:
     
    Last edited: Nov 30, 2006
  2. ErikAlbert

    ErikAlbert Registered Member

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    The very best media for backup is an external USB 2.0 harddisk and keep it OFF-LINE (no internet connection), when you use it.
    IMPORTANT : don't move your external harddisk when it is ON.
    Anything else is not that good.
     
  3. DCM

    DCM Registered Member

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    Drive Image XML is an excellent, free imaging program. I took Acronis and Norton Ghost off my computer and now use only this one because the interface is simple and the program has been very reliable.

    The only downside is that to make a bootable CD, you have to use something like a BartPE boot disk. It is not hard to make one.
     
  4. lucas1985

    lucas1985 Retired Moderator

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    Another one is SavePart, also free
     
  5. wildermark

    wildermark Registered Member

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    Doesn't sound very reliable.
     
  6. cthorpe

    cthorpe Registered Member

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    I've heard nothing but positive reviews of XML. Is it the BartPE that's worrying you?
     
  7. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    I use BartPe for all imaging. I use Shadow Protect, Drive Snapshot, and Image for Windows. Totally reliable with Bartpe.

    Pete
     
  8. screamer

    screamer Registered Member

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    Peter, I'm interested in Shadow Protect, care to share some info:

    1) can it be installed on same box w/ FDISR & ATI
    2) can you browse files in snapshot
    3) do you actually need BartPe to use it
    4) what type of speed are you looking at B/U & restore

    thanks,

    ...screamer
     
  9. dallen

    dallen Registered Member

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    Before Pete tells you all about Shadow Protect, I would like to add a quick recommendation.

    wildermark,
    The answer to your implied question about which imaging software is the best depends on your experience level and your expectations, among other things.

    If you want simple and reliable, make sure your list of imaging software to try has Image for DOS / Image for Windows near the top.
     
  10. lucas1985

    lucas1985 Retired Moderator

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    If you are a Image for DOS / Image for Windows guy, try Partition Saving/SavePart
     
  11. Longboard

    Longboard Registered Member

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    @wildermark

    ATI never used it, cant comment, but vry popular :blink:
    Terabyte ( my choice) I'm with Dallen and Bellgamin and others GO team :D
    http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/index.html
    Drivesnapshot : http://www.drivesnapshot.de/en/
    ShadowProtect: http://www.storagecraft.com/ (second choice)

    Keep your images on external drive: cheap and safe
    Think about the ones that work with BartPE: all of the above
    (shadow protect maybe soon)
    Think about support
    Ease of use
    Reliability beyond ALL else
    ( heh terabyte)

    Lots of other options out there
    IMHO these the best
    Good luck

    PS think about FDISR for possible primary option: can work with all of above.
     
  12. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    Hi Screamer

    To answer your questions:

    1) Yes. I have both FDISR and ATI, although I've not used ATI much anymore. Also have IFD/IFW and Drive Snapshot. I use them about once a month.

    2) Absolutely

    3) I will come back to Bart

    4) I image and restore 17Gig in a shade over 4 minutes for image and 4 minutes for restore. Be Aware those times are machine dependent, and I do have a fast machine.

    Bart. No you shouldn't need Bart. Shadow Protect comes with it's own recovery disk. You download and iso file, and burn it to CD. That becomes both the install disk and recovery disk. The recovery disk uses Win PE. We could not get it to work on my box because of Nvidia Raid drivers. They help me get BartPe working, but asked I not freely distribute the plugin.

    If you want to trial Shadow Protect and want to test recovery you have to request an evaluation version. You can do that on the website. They do this is everytime they give out a WinPe disk they have to pay a royalty to Microsoft.

    Shadow Protect has been very reliable and easy to use.

    Pete
     
  13. screamer

    screamer Registered Member

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    Pete, in another thread (perhaps Acronis) you said you couldn't get ATIs boot disc to work (due to nVidia Raid) I have nVidia Raid 0 and Acronis boot disc works fine. I'm having a problem w/ BartPe, cause I only have Dells re-install disc. Ran PE Builder and had a few errors. Also said " OEM Disc can be a problem".

    hmmm??

    I'm gonna give shadow Protect a try. I just hope their boot disc works on this end.

    thanks Pete,

    ...screamer
     
  14. Genady Prishnikov

    Genady Prishnikov Registered Member

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  15. HAN

    HAN Registered Member

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    Image for DOS from Terabyte Unlimited is my recommendation too. It doesn't look fancy but it gets the job done. I have restored from several images (made before trying new software etc.) and never had the first problem. Plus the price is excellent! :)
     
  16. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    On ATI, I never got past mouse problems on the Recovery CD. I tried their safe mode and then got at least going with the Keyboard. But still no disks.
    As to Bartpe, the OEM thing is a warning, I get it also. The errors you have to track down. Usually it can't find a file. You can look at the log and it will tell you what they were. Post them in a separate thread, and we can have a look. Also mention if it's a plugin problem, what you are trying to have Bart do. Also if you have a problem with Shadow Protect PM me.

    Pete
     
  17. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    Actually Image for DOS was in fact the only thing that would work for me prior to Bart. But Shadow Protect is significantly faster. What is neat is if you use BartPe you can use Image for Windows to both image and restore.
     
  18. Mrkvonic

    Mrkvonic Linux Systems Expert

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    Hello,
    Acronis True Image is fine.
    DriveImageXML ain't bad either.
    Mrk
     
  19. DCM

    DCM Registered Member

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    I have done two full hard drive restorations and many individual file and folder recoveries and never had a problem.

    Building a BartPE boot disk for this is not hard because the makers of DriveImageXML have a Bart PE plugin available at no charge.

    Adding other programs can become difficult, especially if plugins are not readily available for each program. You would not need any more plugins if the only use of the BartPE disk was to use DriveImageXML for recoveries.

    Files and folders can be recovered without a boot disk. Just run the program and recover data from another drive that contains your image files.
     
  20. wildermark

    wildermark Registered Member

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    The reason I never made my own Windows XP Pro setup cd with SP2 preinstalled is because I have OEM.

    One question that I don't think anybody has answered yet and I am very curious about is:

    If I have like 20 gigs of occupied space on a partition and like 20 gigs of empty space on the partition, will these imaging softwares make a 40 gig backup image or are they smart enough to just make a 20 gig backup image?
     
  21. WSFuser

    WSFuser Registered Member

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    the imaging software should only backup the used space on your disk (meaning the 20gb).
     
  22. ErikAlbert

    ErikAlbert Registered Member

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    I use ATI for all backups without BartPE. It never failed from 2006.03.01 till today.
    I also have FDISR, which I use as a second backup, if ATI ever fails (all softwares fail one day).
    I can restore a complete image or a single file or several files via Windows or Acronis Rescue CD.
     
  23. Long View

    Long View Registered Member

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    I have used ATI since version 6 with no significant problems. I make and restore images every day and find it so reliable I have long since not bothered to verify.

    I recently tried Shadow Protect and would certainly recommend it to anyone who had experienced difficulties with ATI. On my system it was slower than ATI and I don't like programs that require activation ( if this is not the case I would be interested to know) but apart from that it looks very good.
     
  24. Notok

    Notok Registered Member

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    I use Acronis True Image and it's done me well over the years. It's been simple, fast, and reliable for me. I do have FD-ISR now as well, but I don't really use it as backup, more for creating testing environments. If you're going to use FD-ISR for backup, I would rely on it more for software errors than for hardware problems. I agree that an external hard drive is probably best for incremental or differential images, but I would say to make at least one DVD backup, since those DVDs will not fail like a hard drive eventually will.
     
  25. ErikAlbert

    ErikAlbert Registered Member

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    I use FDISR for alot more than just backup, I just use it as a second backup and ATI is still my main backup.
    The reason why I use FDISR as a second backup is that FDISR is the fastest backup solution I've ever seen, a matter of seconds or a few minuts.
    The first archived snapshot takes longer, but after that it's nothing but refreshing and every FDISR-user knows how fast refreshing is.
    Acronis is fast, but not that fast. So my second backup doesn't take much time.
    And of course I use the many other functions of FDISR, but those have nothing to do with backup. :)
     
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